hi all,

we have finally reached home on monday afternoon. the trip was great although we could not complete 1 important de-tour. we did not manage to get around dieng nor did we shoot the magnificent sunrise at dieng.

below is my travelogue. correct me if i missed something… . pix will follow soon.

day 0.
- packed things before 7 pm.
- managed to get 2 tix for chelsea – malaysia match @ shah alam stadium
- car broke down, couldnt start due to weak battery. somebody helped to push the car.
- reach home by 11.30 pm
- double checked backpack
- went to zani house by midnight

day 1.
- zani sent me to airport by 12++ am
- met todd at LCCT before 1 am and we talked while waiting for others to arrive
- met dr j and the company at 4.30 am, waje arrived somewhere around that time
- everybody checked in at 5 am, lotsa ppl qeueing…
- checked in at 5.50 am and went for subuh prayer.
- flight depart at around 6.50 am, wonderful sunrise during departure
- arrived at solo 8.20 am. kabul and memeng were there, with theh L200 old kia van…uhhhh. ( i want to castrate kabul for this )
- went to boyolali to catch the much awaited brunch at soto mpok giyem. we got lost. after asking around, we finally found out that there are 2 mbok giyem warungs. and we brunch at the other branch and it tastes the same minus the jawa orchestra plus the pretty waitress @ cashier…hehehehhe
- proceed to dieng via selo. found out that the van is not good enough for dieng. diverted to brobodur.
- took a lot of pictures of brobodur. didnt buy souvenir.
- stop by cartenz to buy outdoor gear / equipment. the chicks are actually not bad at all. todd bought a lot of gears and had been given a membership card by a cewek. “hilang akal tul cewek tuh”
- dinner at padang restaurant. nice dinner but i think, it was overpriced. 400 ++ k is not a nice number.
- went to jogja to overnight. walked in behind malioboro and found a decent losmen to stay.

day 2.
- wake up at 430. dr ali woke up early and managed to get sunrise at malioboro.
- breakfast at a minang restaurant. cheap, some had mee soup, some had rice with chicken and stuffs.
- shopping and street shooting @ malioboro until 11.30am
- by 12 noon, checked out from losmen and went straight to dieng.
- lunch @ ___ . had soto again. not as good as mpok giyem but okeee laaahhh.
- arrived at dieng after maghrib. had dinner @ telaga warna. The best part is met with the tour guide of dieng. bought a marvellous pamplet and some had purwaceng….hehehe. i repeat…PURWACENG.
- decided to cancel sunrise shooting in order to catch up with mount lawu climbing
- went to selo to overnight. arrived at selo around 12 midnight. found a homestay for Rp 200k but without hot shower and drinks.

day 3.
- wonderful sunrise at selo, marvellous mount merapi view. everybody is enjoying the early morning photo shoot out.
- had breakfast at the same stall in new selo ( as in feb 2008 ). had mie sedap.

- checked out from homestay at 8.30 am and proceed to solo to pick up arey.
- arey flight delayed. we arrived at the same time as his @ 10.30 am.
- proceed to lawu. arrived at lawu around 2.00 pm. had lunch. everybody has nasgor – nasi goreng @ friend rice. it was ok.
- started trekking at 3 pm. wonderful scenery of the crops planted on the way up using cemoro sewu route.
- passed first basecamp, the warung had already closed.
- arrived at 3rd basecamp when night falls in
- first group reached sendang drajat basecamp ( camp 5 ) at 9 pm ( arey, todd, waje, culas and mufti ). They moved into another basecamp which had shelter.
- 2nd group reached sendang drajat basecamp ( camp 5 ) at 11 pm. ( me, dr j, and .. whats the name of ur porter dr j? ) . we hoped in from one shelter to another to find the first group. they were in the 3rd shelter. had dinner of pecel and telur goreng ( fried egg ). sleep after solat isya’.
- last group reached sendang drajat basecamp ( camp 5 ) at 2 am. sardin came later. kabul fainted and only reached sendang drajat at 4 am. they had to sleep without tent. the temprature was around 5 degrees celcius and they barely had a sleep.

day 4.
- journey to summit started at 5 am. at 530 am we reached summit.
- the view was spectacular. viewed mount semeru, mount merapi, and mount merbabu from a distance.
- 3rd group reached summit at 6 ++ am. congrats to dr ali, om jasni and mas sani. kabul and sardin were with them.
- descend to basecamp some minutes before 9am. packed up the back packs and descent to cemoro kandang at 10 am.
- the view was marvellous as we passed the great savannah before pos 4.
- the first group to reached cemoro kandang at 2 pm. I was with the 3rd group to reach cemoro kandang at 3 pm. last group, dr ali and arey arrived 20 minutes later. we had lunch at the stall opposite cemoro kandang basecamp. i had rica-rica while om jasni had nasgor.
- proceed to cemoro sewu basecamp to take a bath, repack our things. no heater, and the bath water was freezing cold. 
- proceed to bromo after maghrib prayer.
- had dinner at a losmen somewhere around telaga sarangan at 7 pm. i had gado – gado. it is actually what we call rojak in malaysia but with kerupuk.
- continue to malang via highway. memeng was driving very fast. hueheuhe. thank god we were safe.
- stop over at purwosari. memeng was badly sleepy. bought 6 energizer batteries for rp 22k. that is quite a bargain …. i wish i could buy the whole energizer batteries and bring em back

day 5.
- reached penanjakan gate at 2++ am. repacked and changed our clothing 
- lepaks and proceed to penanjakan via 2 vg 40 at rp 600k.
- arrived at penanjakan at 4 am. had tea with the rest of the team.
- proceed to viewing area at 4.30 am. everybody was finding the best spot to shoot bromo and sunrise.
- sunrised at 5 am. marvellous. captured lotsa photos. i was separated from the group. prayed at 535 am.
- continue shooting after that.
- proceed to bromo before 7 am.
- crazily shooting peoples and horses. i decided not to use horse to reach bromo. me, arey and todd walked to bromo. i hire horse to return to the jeep after climbing down from bromo.
- the weather was marvellous and we decided to go to the savannah for an extra of 300k. stopped at the savannah and the sea of sand.
- return to penanjakan gate at around 10 am. repacked and changed our clothing before proceeding to surabaya at 11 am/noon. WE HAVENT HAD OUR BREAKFAST YET.
- had our lunch somewhere after/before pesuruan. i think that was around 3 pm. we had bakso. a big meatball with a very tiny amount of mee hoon. we were starving……
- continue to surabaya via toll route. “eh they got jalan toll jugak ke”…hehehehe
- reached juanda area’s around 5 pm. checked in at new cahaya hotel. The hotel is not bad at all. paid rp 670k for 3 rooms for 9 persons. Good facility, hot water, hot shower, aircond and breakast too.
- dinner after maghrib at the nearby ibu nuraini restaurant. had a really great dinner. most had the much anticipated bebek goreng ( fried duck ) and cigiyur rujak. i had kambing gulai.
- van roof was damaged. due to this, we couldnt sightseing at surabaya. we went to sleep instead.

day 6.
- woke up at 4 am. packed up things.
- subuh at 5 am. breakfast at 6 am. at 630 we proceeded to juanda airport.
- the airport tax is around 150k. bought some ‘kek lapis legit’ at the airport and 1 samarinda sarong. not cheap, but it fulfills my mother wish.
- depart at 845 am. arrived around noon at lcct. good bye everybody. cya in dieng or rinjani.